


The Longest Journey Starts With but a Single Step

by DMitchell1985



Category: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012), Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Seth Grahame-Smith
Genre: Angst, Bloodplay, Canon - Movie, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Romance, Rough Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-12
Updated: 2012-10-12
Packaged: 2017-11-16 03:29:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/534988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DMitchell1985/pseuds/DMitchell1985
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Staying the course” has never been so difficult for Joshua than it has as he attempts to uncover Abraham’s nightly whereabouts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Longest Journey Starts With but a Single Step

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tony_snark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tony_snark/gifts).



> **Rating:** R – for a bit of sex, slight blood play, and bits of referenced rough sex
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** I don’t own any part of _Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter_.
> 
>  **Author’s Notes:** This was written for [Marena’s prompt](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/DMitchell1985/MarenaPromptOne.png) to help her with her Destiel feels. I hope that you like this, even though it didn’t turn out anything like how I planned. My apologies if there are errors, it’s not beta checked. Also, movie-verse descriptions, because them boys are too cute to pass up! I hope that you don’t mind.

Joshua looked down at the street from the second story window of the room he shared with Abraham. They’d closed up shop at sundown and it didn’t take long before Abraham relinquished his apron and law books for his long overcoat and top hat. He once thought himself invisible to Joshua’s notice when he grabbed his axe and his knives and a bag filled with sand.

But, he wasn’t.

Joshua’s curiosity had bested him once again two months prior when he simply could not puzzle out why exactly Abraham did not come straight upstairs at the end of their day. At first, Joshua thought perhaps Abe lingered downstairs to tidy and stock their wares. Upon him descending the stairs and taking a cursory look around, Joshua spied neither hair nor limb of his friend. 

The tiniest buds of panic threatened to bloom in his chest. If something had happened to Abraham, Joshua knew that he would be partly to blame. What sort of man fails to hear any sign that his best of friends might be in danger?

On further inspection from the storefront to the stock room, Joshua could find nary a jar, bell, or grain of rice out place. He was both relieved and worried to find that the front and back doors were locked to boot. With no obvious signs of struggle or that of a break in to guide his way, Joshua returned to his rooms upstairs and prepared himself for bed.

Woefully confused beyond measure, he extinguished the flames in his lanterns and stumbled into a fitful sleep.

*******

The next morning Joshua had remarked on Abe’s absence to his friend. He carefully noted the way that with little more than a smile and a chuff of laughter, Abe gingerly sidestepped his inquiry to double check their inventory figures.

Joshua could not see how in the world he was supposed to give any thought to how many shovels they had left, when a man he’d openly welcomed into his home, and his bed, could be up to any number of illicit dealings. It was troubling to say the very least.

So it went for several weeks. 

He would work throughout the day and close shop at night by Abraham’s side. But faster than he could sputter out an invitation for cards or some other such pleasant company for the evening, Abe would handily vanish into the night. Joshua would find himself alone once more to turn back the covers of their shared bed by himself. He would stay up late reading by candlelight in a vain hope of catching Abe on his return from whatever errands kept him out to the obscenest hours of the night.

Time and again, no sooner would Joshua feel his eyelids growing heavy, would sleep effortlessly subdue him.

He would always awaken suddenly at the cusp of dawn with Abraham’s hands sliding through his hair and Abraham’s lips softly melding to his own. Joshua’s resolve to demand the answers he felt he deserved fled in the wake of Abraham’s hands tracing their way along his ribs over the thin cloth of his nightshirt. His eyes would attempt to seek out any sliver of truth from Abraham’s adoring gaze, while his treacherous hands would tangle themselves in Abe’s dark curls. He _knew_ that he merited an explanation, but Joshua’s mouth could not form the words; not with Abe’s fingers relentlessly tugging his nightshirt up his hips between them. His brain lost all hope of focus when he felt the cool tips of Abraham’s fingers sliding up his inner thighs with one very clear goal in mind.

 _I’ll ask him tomorrow,_ Joshua always silently promised himself as he inevitably gave in and used his grip on Abraham’s hair to pull his friend into a resentful kiss. 

He poured all of his frustration, anger, and even the bitter traces of suspected betrayal into his kisses. The delicate skin of Abe’s proffered lips were lovingly crushed between Joshua’s teeth until they bled. Errant fingernails found themselves caught on fabric and skin both, with little regard for either, as Joshua ripped and tugged Abraham’s shirt and trousers free of the lean body they shielded from meddlesome passing eyes.

It was all he could do to let Abraham know that so long as neither of them were wed to another, Abraham’s place was with him, in their bed together. But even as he symbolically carved his name into any part of Abraham’s body that he could reach, Joshua recognized that he was only fooling himself. Come nightfall, Abe would don his coat and hat, gather his weapons for their unknown purpose, and he would slip out into the night with intentions Joshua could not fathom. He would do the same the next night and the night after that. Abe would leave on his clandestine errands until he saw fit to stay home.

No matter the effort he put forth into their friendship or how savagely he kissed Abraham upon his return, Joshua knew in his heart that sitting and waiting would not provide him with the answers he sought. It was then, as he relished the teasing thrust of Abraham’s fingers inside of him, that Joshua began to plan.

*******

That had been his world two months ago.

Since then, Joshua had fought his way closer to the awful truth that Abraham seemed intent on harboring with the passing of each day. He forced himself to stay up later and later each night to intercept Abe on his return. No more allowing Abe to wake him when he felt ready to do so with no excuse for his behavior.

It was difficult, those first couple of weeks. Joshua would catch himself falling asleep at all hours of the night and day as he pushed his body to operate with little to no sleep at all. Some nights, Abraham never came home. It was on those evenings, pressed as he was by lack of sleep and a chattering imagination, that Joshua was tempted to go through Abraham’s things. It was a near miss many nights, but he managed to delay the urges long enough to shore up his determination to stay the course of his intended ambush.

By the beginning of the third week, Joshua had what amounted to the best plan he could scrape together. He would nap early in the day, instead of accepting any of his standing lunch invitations, and he would employ the one method he had hoped not to use, coffee.

Dreadful stuff, really. However, no matter how awful they were, there were things in this world that needed doing. With a trepid heart, he dug into the store’s reserves and set about acquiring a new taste. When he had heard the quiet click of the front door closing that first night and could discern Abe shredding his equipment, Joshua knew that he’d made the right choice.

He hurried to meet Abraham at the head of the stairs and gleefully scrutinized the wary shock that passed over Abraham’s face. Joshua could think only one thing to himself set on repeat, _Gotcha!_.

*******

He had managed to glean little that first night of triumph, but the following evenings loosened Abe’s lips by scant millimeters. In bits and piece came the tiniest of new details or stories. There were things that Abe were omitting for his sake, Joshua could tell, but it was better than nothing at all.

Nestled between the subtle switch of prying and praise, Joshua had created something of a nightly routine with Abraham. They would work during the day and he would retire upstairs some nights to take a short nap. Others, he would call upon friends and enjoy games of cards after their supper. When the hour grew late, he would politely make his excuses for the evening and slip away back to the store.

Whichever route Joshua chose on any given night, he would still end up peering down their mostly quiet street and awaiting Abraham’s return as he brushed up on inheritance law or on the workings of Congress. It never took long before he would see a lone figure moving toward the store in the dark or to hear the telltale sounds of Abraham locking the front door and his tired feet climbing up the staircase.

He would meet Abraham in their bath with hot water already boiled and towels already in place. They would then sit and bathe together with Joshua running his hands through Abraham’s hair and gently soothing the many cuts and scrapes that Abe seemed to collect like badges. They would quietly murmur about their evening apart, though Joshua did most of the talking, and press docile kisses to one another’s necks in the literal calm before the storm of tossed sheets and blankets to come.

But most importantly, Joshua read between the things that Abraham did and did not say. He waited to see which side Abraham favored or how deep and numerous his scratches that resembled claw marks were that night. Oddly enough, he also found himself washing away the black smears of what Joshua could only guess was blood. But what bled blackened blood and left animal-like claws marks, Joshua didn’t know. Nevertheless, he planned to ferret out the answers he felt Abraham owed him.

Which is how he found himself solemnly watching as Abe turned the corner onto their street and took his unchanging route directly to their home. He listened once more as Abe made his way upstairs and Joshua went to greet him in their usual spot. He took in the blackened blood partially covering Abe’s face and dripping down his clothes. He noted with little in the way of external reaction the four thin, bleeding lines underneath Abe’s jaw as he inwardly cringed at the minute injuries.

 _If this was what his face and clothes look like, what then of his body?_ Joshua wondered to himself.

With little more than a barely audible sigh of resignation, Joshua helped Abe out of his coat and made himself thankful that he was one small step closer to Abraham’s truth.


End file.
